The UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica. Thursday, November 18, 2021—A new book addressing the challenges of the Coronavirus in the CARICOM region features chapters written by experts from The University of the West Indies (The UWI).
Written by Dr Yonique Campbell, Senior Lecturer at The UWI Mona Campus, together with her University of Sydney co-author, Professor John Connell, COVID in the Islands: A comparative perspective on the Caribbean and the Pacific considers the complex impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in two contrasting island regions and within several islands and island states. The book focuses on public health, the economies, social tensions and responses, public policy, future ‘bubbles’ and regional connections.
Dr. Campbell has a keen interest in Small Island Developing States and felt it was important to bring together interdisciplinary perspectives and offer detailed insights into responses to COVID-19 at different scales in several sectors. She has been a member of The UWI’s Department of Government in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Mona for over seven years, after receiving a DPhil from the University of Oxford. She also serves as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister of Health & Wellness for the Government of Jamaica. Her publications focus on public policy, citizenship rights, security, and the governance of risks. She is also the author of Citizenship on the Margins: State Power, Security & Precariousness in 21st-Century Jamaica (Palgrave Macmillan). Professor Connell, her co-author has also written several books including Islands at Risk (2013) and The Ends of Empire. The Last Colonies Revisited (with Robert Aldrich; 2020).
In this latest publication Dr Campbell also collaborated with UWI colleagues and subject matter experts from the University’s COVID-19 Task Force, including Professor Clive Landis, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Cave Hill Campus, who Chairs the Task Force, and Dr Michelle McLeod, Senior Lecturer, Mona School of Business and Management, who is the Task Force’s tourism specialist.
Professor Clive Landis assumed the role of Chair of The UWI COVID-19 Task Force in February 2020. He is a Professor of Cardiovascular Research and has served in other capacities at The UWI and has published over one hundred (100) peer-reviewed publications in the areas of inflammation and wound healing in surgery and disease. He contributed chapter 4, titled Coronavirus and CARICOM: The Benefit of a Regional University in a Coherent Pandemic Response. It describes the relative success of CARICOM countries in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and offers possible explanations.
Dr. McLeod has more than 30 years of experience in the tourism industry. She authored chapter 12 (pp 219-230), entitled, The Bahamas: Tourism Policy Within a Pandemic, which discusses COVID-19’s destructive effect on the tourism industry in the islands, the failure to employ proper strategic maneuvers to combat its effect, the characteristics of tourism policy consultations and formulation, and how COVID-19 ultimately foiled initial attempts at reopening the islands.
Professor Landis’ and Dr. McLeod’s book chapters are among several publications produced by members of The UWI COVID Task Force, fulfilling its objective to leverage the University's knowledge and experts to assist the Caribbean in its response to the virus outbreak. COVID in the Islands: A comparative perspective on the Caribbean and the Pacific is expected to launch later this month. Specific chapters, eBook and a hardcover version will be available through international booksellers such as Barnes & Noble, Google Books, Amazon.com, and others.
Photo enclosed: COVID in the Islands: A comparative perspective on the Caribbean and the Pacific book cover
Excerpt from the book: Suddenly and catastrophically, early in 2020, the island world experienced an unprecedented shock. In different places and at rather different times the COVID-19 pandemic was crossing the horizon… For a pandemic that erupted in the interior of China late in 2019, the new coronavirus proved a dramatic shock for SIDS and other island territories. In many respects it represents the epitome of globalisation – rather more so than the Spanish Flu of 1918 that extinguished around 50 million lives… The COVID-19 crisis has been seen as a forerunner of a potentially greater crisis – the impact of climate change. Indeed 2020 may also be remembered as the warmest year in human history.
About The University of the West Indies
The UWI has been and continues to be a pivotal force in every aspect of Caribbean development; residing at the centre of all efforts to improve the well-being of people across the region.
From a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948, The UWI is today an internationally respected, global university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and its Open Campus, and 10 global centres in partnership with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.
The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology, Social Sciences, and Sport. As the Caribbean’s leading university, it possesses the largest pool of Caribbean intellect and expertise committed to confronting the critical issues of our region and wider world.
The UWI has been consistently ranked among the top universities globally by the most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education (THE). In the latest World University Rankings 2022, released in September 2021, The UWI moved up an impressive 94 places from last year. In the current global field of some 30,000 universities and elite research institutes, The UWI stands among the top 1.5%.
The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists since its debut in the rankings in 2018. In addition to its leading position in the Caribbean, it is also in the top 20 for Latin America and the Caribbean and the top 100 global Golden Age universities (between 50 and 80 years old). The UWI is also featured among the leading universities on THE’s Impact Rankings for its response to the world’s biggest concerns, outlined in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Good Health and Wellbeing; Gender Equality and Climate Action.
For more, visit www.uwi.edu.
